What is the Department of Education? Why does the Department of Education matter?There's been a lot of news about the Department of Education the last few days, and with that there has been a lot of great questions about the department and its primary functions. We want to answer some of your most pressing questions so you can stay informed and understand the impact this may have on your education. Let's start off with the basics: In 2024, the Trump campaign called for an end to the Department of Education. Newly appointed Education Secretary Linda McMahon runs the department. The Department of Education is 45 years old, opening in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter. Since then, abolishing the Department has long been an arguing point along party lines. Now, the Trump Administration is looking to finally close the department, which will likely require an act of Congress. At this time, both chambers of Congress are under GOP control. At the time of writing this piece, it's important to note that the Trump Administration has not signed the executive order that would dismantle the Department of Education, despite
earlier reports that he would sign the executive order on March 6th, 2025. Most legal scholars agree that the Trump Administration would need to go through Congress before eliminating the Department entirely.
Despite this, we can expect that the Trump Administration will, at some point in the near future, begin dismantling the Department of Education.
Now that you have an overview of what's happened so far let's discuss what the Department of Education does and how this impacts the seven Minnesota State Universities and education as a whole.
What Does the Department of Education Do?
The Department of Education has three primary functions: regulating student services, data tracking, and financial support for students and universities.
Let's dig into Financial support for students and universities first
Financial Aid
While K-12 schools receive some funding from the Department, it's a smaller part of the budget for most public schools. Schools that receive this funding are from the Department's Title I program for low-income schools and the Disabilities Education Act. The Disabilities Education Act supports services for students with disabilities.
Unlike K-12 schools, colleges and universities are far more reliant on the Department of Education, which provides research grants and federal financial aid programs for students.
Pell Grant, TRIO, FAFSA, and federal student loan programs are all housed and administered by the Department of Education. Any federal loan forgiveness efforts, including PSLF, IDR, and SAVE are all directly run by the Department.
The Trump Administration has not made any specific promises on student loan forgiveness, further concerning some borrowers already enrolled in these programs. It's important to note that the federal student loans held by the Department of Education won't go away if the Department were shut down. Instead, the Trump Administration has stated the loans, and the student loan program itself will be moved to any of the following departments: the Treasury Department, the Small Business Administration, or the Commerce Department. In short, the Department has a hand in ensuring that loans are distributed, that the FAFSA is open, applications are processed, and that the school's students are applying to qualify to receive FAFSA dollars. It also oversees and implements any programs regarding repayment plans for the loans. It also holds and processes private student data associated with loans. More on that later.
Grant Through the Department of Education Any number of student support services your school provides may be funded by federal grant money. TRIO, for example, is a program that has been run since the 1960s to support low-income, first-generation students to succeed in higher education.
The TRIO program is popular, with over 50 years, and over 3,000 sites across the U.S.
All 7 of the Minnesota State Universities have TRIO programs on their campuses.
TRIO includes 6 outreach and support programs, which include Student Support Services, Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math/Science, and Veterans Upward Bound. Upward Bound provides specific services to students seeking to prepare for college, strengthening reading and writing skills, as well as math and science. Veterans Upward Bound is specific to military veterans looking to help them transition from the armed forces to post-secondary education.
TRIO and its associated programs, including the Ronald E. McNair program, is one of many programs eyed by the Trump Administration and the larger GOP party to be cut by the federal government despite the program's long and successful history. According to a March 2023 fact sheet put out by TRIO, the program is 34% White, 33% African American, 21% Hispanic, 5% Asian, and 3% Native American. It's important to note that TRIO also serves homeless foster care youth, veterans, and students with disabilities. TRIO students, compared to low-income peers, are 47% more likely to attain an associate's degree or transfer and 18% more likely to earn a bachelor's degree. TRIO's programs are also important for financial literacy, with dedicated staff to help low-income and first-generation families make "educated personal financial choices to fund postsecondary education." TRIO isn't the only way students are supported by the federal government. In fact, services you rely on daily may be funded by federal grant money. Services like the Rehabilitative and Addiction Counseling Program at St.Cloud State University or the Hope Program, funded by almost $722,565 in federal grant money, support parents in school through on-campus childcare programs. It's worth noting that Minnesota is a state that has long been in a childcare crisis. This is just a small glimpse at the funding the 7 Minnesota State Universities receive. Other programs include support for student teachers, meant to address the growing teacher crisis. Others are meant to support a safe learning environment on campus, violence prevention, fostering 'positive campus climates,' and improving safety overall. It's important to note that not all grants come from the Department of Education. Some grants come from the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services, and more. If you want to see more about the federal grants your school receives, click here. A note on NIH and NSF Grants: In addition to federal grant dollars, students and universities may receive money from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Grants from these institutions are not run under the Department of Education but have come under scrutiny from the Trump Administration and GOP. The NIH funds health-specific research, while the NSF funds science and engineering research in the United States. The NSF is an independent federal agency, while the NIH is part of the Health and Human Services Department. The NSF alone funds 12,000 awards each year, and 94% of its $8.5 billion dollar budget goes directly to "grants and awards to support research projects, facilities, and STEM education." The NSF supports 24% of all federally funded academic research at U.S. colleges and universities.
Meanwhile, the NIH spent $34.9 billion of their $47.7 billion budget for grant awards. That comes out to 58,951 awards in 2023 alone issued to over 2,000 universities, hospitals, and other organizations in the U.S. and internationally. If you're a STEM student at a university, have worked in a lab, or have applied for a research assistant position, chances are you have been directly benefiting from an NIH/NHS grant. The pause on funding these grants, especially grants from the NIH, has worrying long-term effects, particularly regarding new treatments for diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimers. As of now, these grants are still in limbo, despite the block to Trump's federal freeze order in late-January. Other executive orders, like the ban on DEI initiatives, have put academic researchers in a holding pattern until clarification comes from the courts, which may not be for some time. Civil Rights and the Department of Education
If you were a student with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) in K-12 or were in a Special Education Program, in one way or another, your education was directly impacted by the Department of Education. The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) ensures equal access to education and enforces students' civil rights.
Working with State Departments of Education, the Department distributes grants to support K-12 schools but also to ensure the states are meeting federal requirements and education standards, including laws like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which mandated the creation of IEPs in the 1990s, or Title IX (referred to as 'Title Nine'), which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs, and activities that receives money from the federal government. The Department also issues policy letters, which help guide states' implementation of laws. To some degree, all federal departments help state departments interpret and understand laws as they're passed by Congress and signed by the president.
This ability to interpret laws is called the Chevron deference, a 1984 Supreme Court ruling that allowed Federal agencies to interpret laws they administer, especially regarding laws that are ambiguous. Now, that decision was overturned in 2024. Agencies are still able to interpret these laws, but their decisions will be subject to challenge at the courts. More on that, and what it means for agencies like the Department of Education here.
What does it mean for the laws the Department of Education enforces if the Department itself goes away?
The laws that the Department oversees will not simply 'go away.' Instead, like student loans, they'll become subject to interpretation by state Departments of Education.
The federal Department of Education supports the work of state Departments of Education by helping interpret important federal civil rights laws. In addition, when states fail to meet federal standards, funding can be used as an incentive for states to change course, implement new rules or programs, and ensure that students are receiving proper support. This, of course, has had its issues. For example: In 2024, Minnesota enacted a new law limiting school districts' ability to hire special education teachers without proper training.
Why?
The Department of Education threatened to cut off over $200 million in special education funding to the state because Minnesota's hiring practices were out of compliance with federal hiring standards. Special Education teachers hired in the state were missing key licensure that would bring them into compliance with federal standards.
The federal Department of Education issued a warning to the state, stating that they'd cut off funding if the state didn't correct their hiring practices and begin the process of getting teachers proper licensure.
The Department works in some ways like a check-and-balance on state departments that are not following the letter of the law, or are struggling to understand and interpret federal guidelines. Without the Department of Education, disabled students, English language learners, and states will likely face some struggles in properly implementing and interpreting civil rights laws, especially as changes come from the judicial level.
This is especially true for other rules the Department of Education oversees and interprets the implementation of, like Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in K-12 and post-secondary institutions.
Data Tracking and Reporting
The last major role of the Department of Education is data gathering on students. The Department of Education and its independent research and statistics department, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), conducts crucial data gathering and scientific research that inform decisions regarding education policy and best practices, as well as providing data for journalists, parents, and educators to use that are both informative and accessible.
From its website, The IES: “conducts six broad types of work that addresses school readiness and education from infancy through adulthood and includes special populations such as English Learners and students with disabilities.”
More specifically, the IES:
Provides data that describes how well the United States is educating its students.
Collects and analyzes official statistics on the condition of education, including adult education and literacy.
Conducts surveys and sponsors research projects to understand where education needs improvement and how these improvements might be made.
Funds development and rigorous testing of new approaches for improving educational outcomes for all students.
Conducts large-scale evaluations of federal education programs and policies.
Provides resources to increase use of data and research in educational decision making.
Supports advancement of statistics and research through specialized training and development of methods and measures.
The IES and the Department of Education provide tools to help policy makers, educators, and students make informed decisions. Including:
National Report Cards, which evaluating how students are doing across the United States.
College Scorecard, which provides a way for students to compare colleges, fields of study, admissions, and cost.
Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), a database specifically evaluating education and civil rights issues from “virtually every public school in the country.”
It’s not entirely clear where the data collection policies will fall if the Trump Administration succeeds in its campaign to eliminate the Department. What’s likely to happen is that it will fall to states to track this data and create its own plans on how to address education inequality on their own.
Why is Data Tracking Important?
Data tracking provides policymakers, constituents, and schools, both K-12 and Post-secondary, with the ability to evaluate practices and make informed decisions about what they need to improve to raise student success rates.
In 2021, the Pell Grant was doubled. This was led by a coalition of higher education organizations (including Students United) that found by doubling the Pell Grant; we could
raise students out of poverty, lower the amount of student debt they are required to take on to graduate and support more students. This was largely predicated on the increased need of students, the completion rates of Undergraduate students, measured by the IES, and more.
Without clear data practices, it will become harder for policy groups, like Students United, to effectively advocate for measurable, clear, and impactful policy. Without the data to justify the increase to the Pell Grant, for example, the true impact of the program would be made from independent, potentially partisan research, that would make the impact of an increase to Pell virtually unknowable. It’s worth noting, again, that it’s not clear that these practices would go away if the Trump Administration does away with the Department of Education.
The Trump Administration is not stating that they would stop data tracking policies, but more so that it’s unclear what federal department, of any, would take on the role the Department of Education currently holds. For state departments to make their own assessments, and conduct their own data policies without the support, or the same rigor as the Department of Education, we would likely be left with incomplete or uncompilable data.
DOGE, Cuts to Funding, and Student Data
It’s impossible to talk about the Department of Education without talking about DOGE and its role in cutting the Department. First: Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is an initiative the second Trump Administration has implemented through executive order. DOGE’s main goal is to carry out spending cuts across federal agencies, including the Department of Education. DOGE is an unelected body and is specific to the Trump Administration.
There are several concerns around DOGE, what the organization has the ability to ask of other departments, and more. If you’d like to learn more, here’s a great breakdown from December of 2024.
DOGE’s involvement in the Department of Education includes cuts to the department’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which DOGE slated for $350 million in contracts in grants. These cuts were precipitated by calls from anti-DEI organizations and activists, who targeted grants, contracts, and laboratories held by the Department of Education as ‘woke spending.’
The funding went to initiatives called Equity Assistance Centers, which were built in to ensure accessible and equal learning opportunities. Interestingly, these programs were originally referred to as the Desegregation Assistance Centers program. In addition to the numerous cuts DOGE is making across the federal government, education advocates and policymakers are concerned about DOGE’s access to sensitive student data. In February of 2025, a federal judge temporarily blocked DOGE from accessing student data after advocates and government watch groups raised concerns about the unfettered access to student loan and financial aid data.
Which, according to Inside Higher Ed “includes troves of uniquely sensitive, personally identifiable information.” raising clear concerns for the privacy violations by DOGE staffers.
While the injunction is in place for now, we’re still closely watching the concerns around student data, student privacy rights, and how DOGE’s expected cuts are going to impact the students at the Minnesota State Universities.